Ferrogels: smart materials for biomedical and remediation applications

LAURA MABEL SANCHEZ; VERA A ALVAREZ; JIMENA SOLEDAD GONZALEZ

Handbook of Composite from Renewable Materials

John Wiley & son

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2016; p. 400 - 430

One of the principal aims of the recent industrial development is directed to obtain materials capable to respond of environmental stimuli for biomedical uses or retaining contaminants with high efficiency and that may be reused several times. In this context magnetic gels, also called Ferrogels, come up as great candidates for these issues because of their excellent adsorption properties as well as good mechanical, thermal and chemical properties. These magnetic-field-sensitive gels are obtained by dispersing magnetite particles of colloidal size into a crosslinked polymer. Magnetic composites have also been widely used in wastewater treatment, biomedical drug delivery and so on, due to their low toxicity, good biocompatibility, small size, and easy separation, and the capability of being controlled by a magnetic field (remote control). In this chapter we describe the most recently advances in this area and the future perspectives of that.